The Influence Mechanism of Food Packaging Factors on Consumers’ Intentions Regarding Waste Sorting Behavior in China

Food packaging directly influences consumers’ behavioral tendencies when implementing waste sorting. This study conducted a survey in China, establishing antecedent variables—consumers’ expectations and perceived quality of food packaging—mediating variables—consumer satisfaction and perceived value—and moderating variables—reward mechanisms, to explore the impact mechanisms of these variables on waste sorting behavioral tendencies. The findings indicate: (1) Consumer expectations not only directly influence perceived quality and perceived value but also further affect consumer satisfaction. High expectations lead to increased satisfaction and value recognition, promoting positive intentions for garbage sorting behavior; (2) perceived quality significantly impacts perceived value, but its direct influence on consumer satisfaction is not significant. This suggests that the relationship between perceived quality and satisfaction varies across different product categories; (3) the reward mechanism, as a moderating variable, can enhance consumers’ expectations and perceived quality, but it does not have a notable direct effect on perceived value and satisfaction. This implies that the reward mechanism primarily influences consumer behavior intentions indirectly by enhancing expectations and quality recognition. This study innovatively introduces the reward mechanism as a moderating variable and constructs a research framework on how food security affects consumers’ garbage sorting behavior. This framework can guide food packaging design and thereby enhance consumer adherence to garbage sorting norms. The research findings provide guidance for the practice of food packaging design, enhancing consumer awareness of waste sorting behaviors through improved food packaging, thereby addressing the issues of food packaging pollution and renewable resource waste in China.